


Eros Vivor

by IAmJustTooDamnWeird



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A series of unfortunate events - Freeform, Boys In Love, Cedric Diggory Lives, Childhood Friends, Crossover If You Squint, Cute Harry, Don't copy to another site, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, Harry Potter is a Good Boyfriend, Harry is a Little Shit, Harry is a Tease, How Do I Tag, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Original Character(s), Pre-Hogwarts, Slow Burn, Soft Harry Potter, The Golden Trio Era (Harry Potter), Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:08:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25617856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmJustTooDamnWeird/pseuds/IAmJustTooDamnWeird
Summary: Some will say that it all started because a young Harry Potter needed glasses and an equally young Eros Vivor needed a friend.Whereas I would like to argue that it all only happened because of the sacrifice of a brave Malfoy and her foolish notion of love.But honestly what could I know.It's all about perspective after all and what am I but a mere author
Relationships: Harry Potter/Original Male Character(s), Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 7





	1. The Ring that Mother cannot see

_-In which Eros Vivor is in pain._

**_ The Ring that Mother cannot_** **_see_**

**Eros didn't understand what was happening.**

It all happened in a _blur_ or at least to him it did.

Then, all of a sudden, for one breathtaking moment everything came into sharp focus. Then within the time it took for one to say ' _magic_ ' he passed out.

He was trapped in his own mind after that, floating in nothingness. He could vaguely feel the nihility beneath the sensation of his mind being forcefully breached.

His head _pounded_ and as he tried to open his eyes and he realized that he _couldn't_ do it because memories upon memories were flashing before his eyes in a visual cacophony of bright shades and dull hues.

Everything felt muted and intensified at the same time as memories that weren't his own attacked his mind. Those memories did nothing but cause pain to his pain riddled consciousness.

He tried to piece everything that happened together and make sense of his jumbled thoughts. After sorting out most of the disarray, he tried to understand what had happened to bring him to his current state.

His eyes opened just a smidge and he only comprehended the things around him for one moment before shutting his eyes and groaning in pain.

He had to understand what brought him here so with a sense of urgency he started to think back to how it all started. Well, he didn't want to know how it _all_ started. He just had to know how he was _here_ \- in a large bedroom, in front of a king sized bed laying on the ground with shards of glasses haloing his body.

He couldn't even remember his name for a frightening dread filled second.

But he disregarded his panic in a decisive moment and closed his eyes to try and summon the memory of what brought him here with all of his will.

_Ah-ha, got it._ He thought in a moment of childish triumph as a memory resurfaced in his mind.

There had been a strain in his connection with his twin sister.

The magical bond that he shared with his twin had always been the strongest amongst the ones he shared with his other siblings. It wasn't surprising at all that he had such a strong bond with Iris because they were twins after all.

He had felt the bond strain and lurch and then shake as if the bond was too narrow to send all of his twins feelings accurately to him and within time.

The emotions that he _had felt_ though were intense and made his brows furrow and his jaw clench. He had felt waves and waves of panic and pain in his heart which had lead to him toddling over to his parent's room following the connection blindly. His parents were not present in the house, that fateful day.

He vaguely remembered his pregnant mother going out to consult a healer with his older brother who had clung to her and refused to be left at home with his little brother and sister. His father was at work.

He had tried to call Ribky, who always took care of them but then for the sake of merlin he couldn't even _remember_ his name. Now in the privacy of his mind the situation seemed infinitely suspicious. It wasn't like him to not remember the name of the parental elf that had taken care of all his siblings since they were toddlers.

He also reckoned that even if he had remembered, he wouldn't have been able to say the name aloud. His mouth was parched then and his body was shaking ever so slightly.

He had toddled over to his parent's room not knowing the reason but when he had walked into the room whose door was ajar he understood. His sister lay there writhing in pain.

He reached the bed and tried to peer into the face of his twin and failed. But he could see one of her clammy hands hanging out of the bed.

For one second she became motionless and then whined. He felt warmth in his cheeks as his eyes blurred with tears. His heart clenched.

Needless to say he was distressed for his younger twin and tried to climb the bed and take his twin into his arms, but his leg was too short and his foot too clammy, so he slipped. His twin was mumbling nonsense under her breath and whimpering relentlessly.

He felt desperate. Anxious. Slowly distress turned into anger because _why couldn't he do this_. He wasn't useless. Mother had told him that one time when he had a nightmare and came stumbling into his parent's room that he was her cunning and smart boy (and that a pureblood of his status should be able to outsmart the monsters under his bed). Wasn't he? Of course, he was. Because after all, Mother never lied!

Then now he wouldn't- absolutely _couldn't_ \- be useless.

He tried to do the thing that he had seen his older brother, Helios, do once. His brother had made himself rise into the air while he was on top of a broom.

Surely, if his older brother could reach the treetop by using the broom then he could climb the bed without one? It must be true, mustn't it? So, he tried and _tried_ to channel all his will but for the love of merlin he couldn't reach his sister.

He felt anger burn in his veins.

So, he thought about what he could do. He thought and _thought_ until his stomach grumbled and clenched.

Then as he grimaced in distaste at his stomach ( _because this was a serious adult moment and he shouldn't feel hunger during this. He shouldn't think about Ribky's homemade warm baked cookies that he seldom made during this absolutely serious moment)_ a brilliant idea flashed in his mind.

Some days ago his mother had forbidden his sister from eating the sweets because she had called Helios ' _poopy_ ' and his twin had looked at the desserts with longing and at Helios with fury. The sweets had started to float towards her when their mother's back was turned. His mother had looked back towards them then due to his awed gasp and stopped the sweets halfway through with a wave of her hand.

Later that night, his mother had given his sister half of one cookie. His sister didn't want to share her sweets with him and he had cried until his mother gave him one, too.

He thought of that moment and contemplated.

If Iris could do this to the plate of sweets then surely he could make her float towards him from the bed if he wanted to, couldn't he? If he made her float towards him then he could hug her and pat her hair till all her pain went away. He could comfort her 'till she wasn't hurting anymore.

His eyes shone because _wow this was a brilliant idea._

With renewed vigor, he tried to summon his sister towards him. His face scrunched and he tried to recall what his mother had told him once in hushed whispers when he was playing with his father's wand and was dismayed because he couldn't produce any gorgeous sparks like his twin sister could.

_Magic is all about intent and will, Eros_.

He tried to think of his sister. Her black glossy hair glittering in the sun. Her ivory skin marred by dirt. Her purple eyes shining with laughter, that one time they won while playing hide and seek with Helios. They both had hidden themselves behind the curtains in the library.

The light had shone from outside and through the glass had cast a ray on Iris's face. Iris had put one of her hands on the glass of the large window and he had mimicked her movement.

Iris had looked at him once and had then put her nose on the window and giggled because they were being _so sneaky._ It was absolutely certain that they would win that round of the game.

Still, Eros had shushed her by putting his index finger over his lips. It wouldn't do to lose at the last moment because they accidentally laughed too loud.

Iris impersonated his gesture and put her own finger over her chapped lips. The light from the window caught the ring on her finger for a brief moment.

Eros' concentration broke then because he was distracted by the ring in his imagination.

The ring was a curious thing. For only Eros and Iris could see it. He had once asked his mother with slight jealousy why he didn't get a ring on his finger like Iris did. His mother had smiled curiously and asked him, 'What ring, Eros?'

Apparently even Helios couldn't see the ring with the orange colored stone in Iris's hand.

His thoughts derailed again and for a moment all he could think about was the stone in the ring but _he didn't want to think about it_.

His eyes scrunched and his breathing stuttered in concentration as he thought about his sister but alas the picture that he saw in his mind was of the glittering stone. Even then he persisted and tried his hardest to think about his sister and her well being. He felt his magic drain slowly and the bond between his sister strengthen for a second before rapidly his magic started rising in a rate that was startling.

If his eyes weren't closed he could've seen the way the stone _shone_ brightly before vibrating and how the stone started to _move_. Slowly the ring loosened and as Iris's hand slipped out of the bed the ring started slipping out of her hand too but not before a drop of dark blood seeped out of the ring and onto the skin of her hand.

The blood then _disappeared._

The ring clattered to the ground and swirled.

_Once_.

_Twice_.

_Thrice_.

And _kept_ swirling.

Power radiated out of it and slowly the windows in the room shook and within moments they _shattered_.

Pieces of glass cluttered on the floor. None of the pieces touched Iris and almost none made it towards Eros except one. A tiny piece of glass had made its ways towards his hand and had scratched his wrist just enough to draw blood.

Even before the pain of his writhing and twisting body registered in his mind he was sobbing due to the _pure pain_ that the rising power was causing in his head. One of his hands came up to wipe his cheeks and the tears mingled with the blood in his hands.

A drop of diluted blood met the floor very close to the swirling ring and before Eros could process his thoughts the ring rolled slightly and fell right on top of the blood mixed with his tears and the droplet of blood met the stone.

A scream tore through his throat moments before his amaranthine eyes opened and his sister's body stilled.

* * *

**_ Started on 17th July, 2020. _ **

**_(This is the rewritten version.)_ **

**_Disclaimer_**

I **do** **not** own either the Harry Potter books or movies or any other movie/series/book that I reference along the way.  
All rights belong to the rightful owners but I **do** have full ownership of the original characters (believe me when I say that there are a lot of those) that will be present in this book and any other plots or places that weren't present in the books and movies.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without my prior permission.

Now that these things are over.

**_Author's note:_**

Please don't plagiarise this work because this is my little baby. I have had this idea since 2016 and I did publish this once but I wasn't satisfied with my writing then. So, during this quarantine I'm trying to get into writing again and hopefully I'll be able to finish this!

This was originally supposed to be a boyxgirl fic but then I had this sudden inspiration and finally I made this a **_omcxharry_** fic!

I took a lot of liberties with this book and thus the characters may appear to be a little oc but that can mostly be chalked up as repercussions of having characters that weren't present in the book. ( _There is also a slight crossover with a series of unfortunate events-if you squint_ )

I assure you that I am trying really hard to make this idea into a good read.


	2. Valeria Malfoy loved a Weasley

_-In_ _which Valeria Malfoy loves with her whole heart._

**_ Valeria Malfoy loved a Weasley _ **

**Valeria was scared.**

Her head ached as she sat on the cold hard ground of the dungeons. The chillness sweeped into her bones slowly but she did not shiver, she was _too used_ to this.

She didn't have a wand and that made her precarious situation all the more terrifying. But she wasn't frightened for herself, rather she was more frightened for the frail and exhausted red headed girl curled beside her who was clutching Val's wound tightly and sobbing quietly.

But no matter how much she _wished_ , she couldn't do anything. She closed her heavy eyes trying to ignore the pin prick of tears that tricked down her cheeks. There was no way out of the dungeon. In fact, there was nothing they could do here except be tortured.

Her mind jolted with the veracious thought that they were going to die if they didn't do anything. But her body was weak and her mind even more so. On top of that, she never had the aptitude for wandless magic that many possessed either which further proved that there was nothing that could be done to get out of here.

So, she tried to do the only thing that she could in this situation which was to calm her frantic thoughts in order to not awaken the girl besides her from the fitful sleep that she had finally fell into.

Her thoughts wandered slowly and spontaneously towards the abysmal life that she had lived till now, as she felt blood trickle slowly from her open wounds through her fingers.

Her life wasn't as marvellous as she would've liked to believe, rather it was quite lackluster.

At the start, she was a bit of a bully who liked to arrogantly share smirks and taunts with 'friends' after they found the opportunity to insult someone. Sneering at Weasley and their lot was an integral part of her leisure time activity during the very start of her school life.

She also only had one _real_ friend her whole life. She hadn't even tried to make other true ones. It wasn't even like she was scared to do so. No, in reality she _thrived_ in attention. But she hadn't made any _friends_ despite all that.

Maybe if she had at least _tried_ to interact with people then someone would've come to save her from her current predicament.

It wasn't like she _couldn't_ make friends, rather she was of the thought that 'slytherins were the only ones who were great and thus capable of greatness' in the first half of her school life (which made making friends from other houses quite hard.)

On the last half of her schooling, she thought that 'slytherins were not even worth the dirt on her shoes' (which made making slytherin friends quite hard too!)

Her thinking, she realized through the blurry haze of her tired mind, was erroneous at best and bigoted at worst and created a conundrum at all times. It wasn't like Hogwarts would have houses for loyal, brave, knowledgeable and _evil_!

  
Through her indignation, she let out a light whine at the pain in her torso and let her head thud against the floor with a loud thump. The pain that the smack caused stopped the impeding headache for only a moment and gave her a small bout of relief from the throbbing ache in her torso.

Now, as she looked towards her side where her lover rested, she finally saw what she was trying to avoid seeing the whole time, her lover's breathing was _extremely_ feeble. While she had been injured externally, her lover had exhausted all of her magic to get them both healed up. That had taken a toll on her lover's already magically and physically weakened body.

And now Val felt weak, too.

So weak that she couldn't even remember most things about herself, whoever said that 'one's life flashes before their eyes when they face a life threatening situation' was clearly a horrible liar.

But, she persisted because she needed something to distract herself with from _all_ _this_ , even if it was only for a moment, it wouldn't do to give up now when she still had some strength in her. After she rested a bit and gained enough energy maybe she could do something to get them both out of here.

Procrastinating when she was in a time crunch wasn't a very smart thing to do but she wasn't exactly a role model for making wise decisions anyway.

Her life wasn't flashing before her eyes but if she concentrated hard enough she could _almost feel_ small snippets of memories slipping by her mental defenses.

Her body was also starting to protest vehemently due to the mental strain that her concentration caused. So, like _any other sane person_ she tried to occupy her mind with other happy thoughts and memories in order to regain her vigour. This caused her to exert herself mentally even more.

But, like a masochist -because concentrating made her ache just that bit more, she still tried to _remember_ good feelings, warmth along with things that brought her unbridled joy. She tried to remember what performing magic for the first time felt like.

Memories flashed by her mind.

Memories of having a wand and clumsily riding a broom- and _never pouting_ because pouting was _an_ _undignified_ thing to do- flashed in her mind as she concentrated but she _didn't concentrate_ on who taught her to perform magic, she didn't concentrate on the memory of her getting her first wand and she definitely didn't concentrate on _who_ caught her after she fell from the said broom for the first time.

She, however, did focus with almost _startling_ clarity on the memory of snarling 'Weasley' with hatred and the subsequent flashes of memories depicting how the glares at the red head with force turned into soft, loving and fleeting - _almost_ shy- glances.

Remembering the memory of 'clumsily falling on her back on the vast quidditch pitch, her decorum lost somewhere between loud booming laughter and soft hushed whispers' was almost too easy, even to her slipping consciousness.

She also remembered two silly twelve year olds vowing to always be the best of friends.

She remembered red hair mixing with white blonde in a sea of grass making it look like a canvas of bright blotches.

 _Maybe she was dying after all,_ she thought with an odd sense of detachment. The memories flashed by _too fast_ now. So fast that she couldn't comprehend most of it. But what she _could_ comprehend was the pain that blossomed and branched from her body into her magical core. She felt a tug on her magic and she squirmed at the uneasiness.

And _then._

Then, she was looking besides her where her lover wasn't _breathing anymore_. Soft feeble breaths ceased to exist now. No movement could be detected from her chest and her limp hand was loosening from the viscous grip around a crudely transfigured dagger that was slowly turing back into a ring- which had been its original form.

Her lover had transfigured the ring as a last failsafe that could be used to get them out but they both knew it wouldn't do anything against a fully grown wizard.

For a moment she could almost hear her lover's soft pleased laughter after she had wandlessly done the transfiguration. But then she stood up on shaky legs and the serenity of the memory vanished.

What she did remember after that was through blurry eyes and hazy consciousness.

She remembered cutting her quivering palms (with a knife so sharp that it almost made her numb body _feel_ something.), crying into blood soaked fingers, pushing all the magic from her core (till it felt _hollow-empty-wrong-wrong-wrong!)_ and _**wishing**_ with such intensity that the walls of the dungeon shook.

(Wishing - 'Don't let her _die_. _Don't let her die!_ I love her. _Please._ Please, I'll give _everything_. Make this all go _away!_ ')

And she remembered closing her eyes and sending waves and waves of magic until there was nothing left. Until, her magic was not there. Until she felt like she had been stripped of all the things that made her what she was.

(Until pain was all that she knew.)

The feeling of death holding her in his cold embrace even for a brief moment could never be forgotten.

Then there was a flash of brilliant light she heard a _laugh_ like that of _thunder_ as fear and anxiousness gripped her tired heart as she-

Maybe she had passed out, then. Maybe she had really died or maybe this was all a dream because she opened her eyes (she didn't remember closing them at all) to a gasp and saw brown eyes opened wide enough in wonder before it rolled back.

Her own hazel eyes had disbelief in them as she saw the heaving of her lover's chest. Her lover's hands twitched once and then her breathing evened out.

 _It worked,_ she thought in a moment of triumph.

It was the most surreal thought and maybe her fuzzy consciousness was the reason why she didn't panic as she saw her suddenly reinvigorated lover wake up from _death._

 _Maybe this was a dream,_ she thought again. Maybe it had all been just a dream. Her draining of her most precious treasure -magic- couldn't result in her lover awakening from death, she at least had enough awareness to figure that out.

So, the most _logical_ conclusion was that this was all a dream and she'll wake up anytime now to see that she had passed out in the cellar or better yet she was in her slytherin common room and this had all been a pretty elaborate dream about getting tortured by dickheads. Her overactive imagination could surely pull that off, she was sure of it.

But then another part of her brain thought that maybe the impromptu ritual that she tried to do with blood magic actually worked.

What if she didn't really need an actual ritual for her plea to work. Just needed to give up her last bit of magic. She let out a small snort of bitter laughter that made her lungs burn and suddenly as if 'accio'ed' a phrase floated in her head, _Magic_ _is all about intent_ _._

Maybe if this wasn't just a figment of her imagination then she could do something to get out of here using sheer force of will.

But now wasn't the time because she just wanted to crawl towards her lover and take a brief respite.

But her head sharply turned towards her almost limp hand as the ring on her finger _glowed_ with magic for just a second. That was enough to warrant her cloudy attention. Her breath hitched as she saw the stone of the ring twinkle innocently. The exact duplicate of the ring let out a faint glow in her lover's hand but it went completely unnoticed by Val.

 _Merlin fuck,_ tears of anger suddenly rolled down soft cheeks due to sheer frustration, _I messed up the ritual!_ Sounds of heaving exhausted breaths filled the room, _I used an ancestral ring powered with centuries of magic to jumpstart a blood magic ritual!_ Whether it was intentional or unintentional, Val herself couldn't tell.

Soon the sobs turned into haggard pants at the insinuation.

What _was I thinking using an ancestral ring in my vault as a promise ring!_

If this was all real then she had fucked up really bad. No one could bring back the dead, at least not as they had been before. She had not only tried to being her lover back but she had also used the whole of her magic to do so and _on top of that_ she had used an ancient magical artifact to power the whole thing.

That was the moment for her lover to awaken because her lover's eyes slowly opened as she inhaled loudly and the first word out of her mouth was, "What was that?"

Val shook her head reflexively and without thought reached out to take her lover's hand for comfort. As her hand clasped her lover's, the promise rings on their hands clanked together and they both froze.

Nothing happened.

They both relaxed.

Then as if summoned, a great gust of wind and a surge of light _swirled_ through the room and everything blackened.

Val could still feel her body in the darkness and her lover's hand clutched in hers could be felt too. She could feel her body rise in the air and she yelled aloud at the strange sensation.

Within the blink of an eye the stagnant air of the dungeon cleared and the chirping of birds could be heard as rays of light suddenly warmed her cold body.

Val opened her eyes slowly as one of her hands reflexively came up to clasp around her lover's. What she saw made her mouth open in absolute disbelief, before her stood a great meadow sparsely covered with shrubs and trees.

"What did you do?" Her lover wheezed out.

"I don't know," Val said in a low voice and then straightened her back as she heard faint footsteps through keen ears.

A wand pointed towards her in a dexterous movement and she looked up from her sprawled position into amaranthine eyes.

"Who are you?" The mouth of the purple eyed male hadn't moved so her eyes wandered towards his shoulders from where he could see a women with soft brown curls picking at a mole on the corner of her right eye in nervousness.

She didn't know how to answer that question and she didn't have to because as her lover started to stand, she felt herself pass out due to utter exhaustion.

In her last moment of consciousness, some thoughts passed through her head.

Something had obviously gone wrong with her ritual and she didn't know if the people that they had encountered were safe or not but she hoped that they were.

She didn't remember what she had thought about during the ritual even though it had been moments ago, but she knew that wherever they were now, they would be okay.

Because she had wished for her lover's safety and magic was all about intent after all.

* * *

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE:_ **

**Hey, guys. So this is the second chapter!** **Well, the rewrite of the second chapter if we're being specific.**

**The reason for the late update is....well Conan gray. Because 'heather' made me really emotional even though the song isn't something that I really relate to at all?**

**And online school has been going as well as these things go. I've been trying to concentrate more in my studies for some days but have no fear! The next updates for all chaps till 6 will be swift because I need to only do some minor editing in those.**

**This chapter was the only one with really heavy editing done. Infact, the plot has been quite changed so that the whole backstory of the book matches up correctly.**

**Because all the OC's have to be woven in with all the characters of the book/movies. At least that's the plan.**

_**Thoughts? Like it? Hate it? Haven't formed an opinion yet? Let me know!** _


	3. Harry Potter has the Ring of a... Weasley!

_\- In which Eros Vivor meets a slightly angry Harry Potter who's ready to_ _ehm_ _throw hands?_

_** Harry Potter has the ring of a...Weasley! ** _

**Eros was surprised.**

The main reason for this sentiment was that he didn't expect to be alive at all.

Not after _what_ he had been through. He had seen a lifetime of someone else's life and it all had felt so _real._ It was like he had been in an elaborate dream.

As he was wondering over what had happened a voice broke him from his train of thoughts. Even his ponderings of life or death situations (according to him) had to be interrupted, he thought with dismay and over dramatics.

"Eos? Wat'r you doin' 'ere?" Iris - his twin sister- mumbled in a daze.

"Nothing, Iris!" He rushed out to say, but then as he looked into the shards of broken glass and the broken windows he stumbled to piece together a believable explanation.

"I was j-just- Well," He didn't know how to handle the confrontation.

  
_Well_ , his mind flashed and latched onto a certain memory from the dream, he _did know_ how to do it, he thought with slight inopportune and childish confidence. But as he looked at Iris' glassy eyes he stopped short and didn't open his mouth. He couldn't spin a lie to get out of this mess that didn't incriminate Iris as the perpetrator or that sounded at least coherent.

What he failed to realize, was that he was blowing this small incident out of proportion. 

  
But, everyone was an inherent drama queen at heart, so it didn't really matter much.

The first rule of getting out after being caught was to deny, deny _and deny_. 

A person should deny that they did a crime until they started to believe the lie. It was an effective course of action. _Well_ , it worked if your parents loved you so much that they believed you and took your side most of the time.

_All of_ ** _that_** _knowledge_ wasn't really his rather it had been part of his pseudo-dream. That realization horrified him beyond belief because he hadn't personally _experienced_ any of it but he intimately knew various things about _life_ now and that thought sounded incredulous, even in the privacy of his own mind.

Overall, He thought with immature bitterness that - the lesson about how to not get caught was not really effective for him anyways because he couldn't lie to save his life. 

All that dream provided to him was useless knowledge and infinite annoyance.

  
He huffed in exasperation. He couldn't find in in himself to discredit Iris and blame her either. Which was the second trick to getting out of trouble- shift the blame.

So, in conclusion all he had from the 'dream' was no good knowledge, as was stressed earlier, about things that didn't benefit him in the slightest and a great bout of anxiety for the person whose knowledge he had received.

He was greatly concerned because _where_ was the person now, was she even _alive_ and _why_ did the memories stop just there as she touched her lover's hand.

Despite his inner dilemma, he opened his mouth to sketch out a decent half truth for his sister. 

Because, even in the wizarding world being able to view the memories of another witch via an _ancestral ring_ (if his memories were to be believed) was not a normal thing, even he knew that.

He was seven, not stupid.

"I came here because _uhm_ you were asking for hel- a glass of water and I wanted to use m-magic to get the glass to you," It was the most horribly structured lie ever. But, still he didn't elaborate and try to fix it because he feared that if he opened his mouth then he'll end up saying something _even_ _more_ disbelieving.

But, maybe, he thought with growing dread, he had already messed it all up.

There was no way Iris was going to believe him! He was going to be thrown in Saint Mungo's if his sister figured there was something wrong with him! Ugh, he was such a bad actor his sister will surely know and it was all the fault of that blasted ring that made him dream of sixteen years worth of a random person's life in-

_Was it sixteen or more?_ He was distracted from his inner crisis with this thought because he couldn't exactly decipher how many years of memory there was in his head. It also didn't help at all that the memories felt fleeting to his tired min-

"Oh, Children! Ribky! Helios' letter is here!" His mouth parched. Mother was home.

In his frustration he had almost forgotten that he would have to do human interaction the whole day. Because contrary to how it felt, the day had just started and that day was when his brother would get his acceptance letter.

His terrified brother, Helios, was so scared of getting his acceptance letter from Crest Academy that he had latched onto their pregnant mother's robes with quivering hands at the start of the day and demanded to go with her to her healer's appointment to ease his nerves.

And now that his brother was home, he would surely be forced to go with his brother to Vertic Alley.

Hesitatingly and sluggishly he went down the stairs supporting an excited but tired Iris.

  
He was infinitely sceptical of his ability to lie to his Mother.

His inability and subsequent failure to trick Iris into believing that she had been the one to break all of the windows of the second floor of the manor hadn't helped the matter.

In fact, his inability had only served to strengthen his suspicion that he was unable to lie to his family, at all.

His incapability also worried him because what if his family thought him mad and took him to Saint Mungo's or worse. What if he was kept there forever and never able to visit his family again. What if he grew ol-

It seemed that all his worries were in vain.

Bernice Vivor née Zurita had been so excited with her eldest son's acceptance into the 'Illustrious School' that she had only entered the parlour for a few moments before swiftly hurrying towards her room for a change of robes.

Apparently, she was to take Helios shopping immediately as was the tradition.

"I haven't prepared for it at all, my darlings," she had beamed, even though she had been talking about the letter for the whole month and had prepped Helios about exactly what he might expect and what he had to do to _excel_ at the school

Helios had been as excited as Mother which had surprised Eros because Mother was _positively beaming_.

He had understood Helios' excitement moments later as he realized that this would be his first time going to Vertic Alley.

In fact, thinking about it, none of the Vivor children had been to the Alley before and they had never questioned their parents about it either. That was a little weird, Eros thought.

Helios started for his room with a skip in his step but faltered as Iris informed Mother that she felt faint.

Eros almost winced. As indirectly as it seemed it was still his fault that Iris had been hurt and worn out. Well, maybe it wasn't totally his fault but who knew for sure?

His pinched expression didn't last long, soon it turned into confusion as Iris said with an expression that gave off the feeling that she had done a grave crime, "Oh, Helios! I'm sorry that we won't be able to go the shops with you today!"

Helios merely gave a grime dissapointed smile while mother suddenly appeared and clasped a fine hand on his brother's shoulder and loudly exclaimed, "Perhaps, next year- after you get your letters, _of course_ \- we can all go visit the Alley with your little sister and Father!"

The exclamations and the whole over joyous affair seemed to be borderlining on theatrical. Truly, his Mother tried too hard to appear happy.

Eros could see through everything clearly if he concentrated hard enough. The smile she gave to her round stomach during 'little sister' felt a little overdone and it seemed particularly strained at the word 'father'.

But these observations were only passively noted by Eros.

He was too busy thinking over the conversation.

 _Why did Iris say 'we' when she mentioned that she won't be going?_ His mind came up blank.

No basic occlumency training is helpful when you genuinely forget things.

No matter how hard his father had drilled the importance of practicing the art of clearing their minds into them it still bore no profit when he didn't recall things clearly. Even if all of his siblings possessed the rudimentary skills already due to heredity it wasn't really helpful when you were forgetful.

Nonetheless, he would be able to go to the wizarding alley next year when he, hopefully, started at the Academy with his twin.

Unlike Hogwarts which was the only wizarding school that Val had attended in his memories (she haven't even attended those primary schools that muggleborns went to before Hogwarts. Nor had she gone to Pigfarts for a visit of the grounds, come to think about it. Eros had heard highly of the school.) the Crest Academy started schooling their students one year after their second magical maturation which was at just the tender age of eight.

He whispered his unanswered concern when Ribky had taken the shakey Iris to her room, "U-uh, Mother, I was wondering what I hav-"

Bernice promptly cut him off while she was fixing the collar of the cloak that Helios hadn't been able to change out of, "Ribky will take you to Andarta's house at Privet Drive,"she sneered out the name.

For a moment Eros couldn't understand whether Bernice had sneered out the name of Andarta or Privet drive. Knowing her, it was both.

His Mother then turned, put a wandlessly and silently accio'ed cloak on his shoulder and started dusting the robes within the span of seconds and said rather _sternly_ , "You must be on your best behaviour now, dear. And don't run your mouth about the Academy too much, you know how jealous your aunt gets!"

Aunt Andarta, a very short and plump women with soft brown curls and deep blue eyes, had never seemed jealous of the fact that she had attended Hogwarts instead of Crest Academy but Berni-Mother always insisted that she' _s just naturally_ _jealous dear, you just haven't seen the world like I have! Mother knows best, after all!_

Don't get him wrong, his Mother wasn't as manipulative as she seemed _or as she thought she was_ _,_ he could clearly see through his Mother's carefully constructed facade now because it matched Val's quite obviously.

Having memories of another person's life in a very different lifetime was a bit tiring sometimes and it hadn't even been two hours yet.

Eros suppressed a groan at thought of how he hadn't mustered up a single believable lie since gaining the memories of two lifetimes. In fact, he seemed to have gained the subtlety of an overgrown hippogriff.

Fortunately his mother hadn't detected any anomalies, yet. But, he couldn't fault her for that.

His mother might not be as smart as her sister (Andarta Zurita) who was a master duelist in her own right. But Bernice Vivor had enough raw magical power to mop the floor with most competent wizards. So, he shouldn't judge her with his abysmal experience and lacking intelligence.

But, he was human after all and in the privacy of his exhausted mind he could judge his family if he wanted.

No matter what he thought, judging Kratos Vivor (their father) - who focused on finesse and subtlety in his spells instead of raw power when he showed them magic - was quite hard.

All of the Vivor siblings had admiring fondness for their parents, even though they didn't really interact with them often, they were mostly in the capable hands of their caretaker, Ribky, more often then their parents.

That didn't mean that the siblings were oblivious of their parents daily affairs.

His sister always paid attention to Kratos keeping a more than enough needed distance between Bernice and him, Kratos' grimace as Bernice ran a tirade about _filthy muggles_ and the absolute pained awkwardness on Bernice's face when she was forced to make conversation with their father during social events.

His sister always became frustrated after these instances even though none of the siblings had any memories of their parents having a discord.

No wonder his mother was so bitter and had a habit of hiding behind a strained demeanor, he thought this for a moment, she hadn't found love, yet. Her life must be bleak stuck in such a loveless marriage. He had seen enough memories of a happy Val to cherish true love even if he couldn't comprehend the feeling in his young mind.

Some part of him pitied his mother but that was no excuse for her uncalled for hatred regarding blood traitors and muggles. He was absolutely revolted at such ideologies specially after he realized what such hatred elicited.

It wasn't like someone needed true love to stop them from spewing and harboring hatred towards others who were less fortunate.

As far as he knew Nathanial (his cousin and Aunt Andarta's only son born out of wedlock, he didn't know the meaning of the word until now, to be honest he didn't really want to know this even now because _gross_.) didn't ever have a father figure during his whole upbringing due to Andarta's hesitation to go on dates. His aunt still turned out to be quite open minded and opted to live with muggles. A fact that Bernic- Mother had lamented about quite often in the Vivor household.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice his Mother sprinkling floo powder on the fireplace and bellowing, "Hotel Denouement!"

He felt a tug on his index finger and turned to Rikby looking at him with amusement in his too large eyes. "You's ready, E'os?"

Rikby and Iris had been accustomed to calling Eros as E'os because they couldn't pronounce his very easy name properly. Although, when Rikby said that it sounded like You's but it was still decipherable.

The look in Ribky eyes was stern and he had an intuition that it was because of the mess of shattered glass that Ribky had fixed due to Iris begging him in a surprising feat of great forethought.

Rikby's ears twitched as Eros muttered a feeble 'yes' quelled by the stern look. "You's remember to call me if you's in treble. You's not forget the rules!"

_Translation: Call me if you screw up and don't be an absolute idiot._

"Alright, Ribky," Eros' said as his arm was cradled in spindle like hands and after they had apparated to their destination he continued, "Thank you, Ribky. I'll call you when I'm finished. Goodbye."

"You's be careful, yes?" The gaze was now soft and parental. At his nod, Rikby vanished into thin air and Eros brushed off the odd burst of _warmth_ that blossomed in his stomach at Rikby's casual show of concern.

With a silly smile on his face he looked around at the foyer of the extension charmed house -although the charm wasn't that obvious, he could feel the (somewhat dull and muted) warmth of the familiar magic- and stopped short as he turned around and saw the front door being shut after his aunt went out of the house.

His mind whirled at the uncomfortable sensation at the pit of his stomach and he realized that it was due to the strong signature of magic that followed his aunt.

Sensing magic was always something that he was able to do. The gift came from the mother side of his family.

He vaguely remembered the lessons with his Mother where she battered Helios to utilize his gift _or you can forget about your acceptance letter! They won't let just anyone enter into the academy._

 _But my mind is my gift mother!_ Helios would always argue. _I don't need to master empathic magic when I can master the mind arts!_

What did Bernice Vivor eat during her pregnancy to sprout such adept children? Better yet, what potion regimen does Kratos Vivor use?

 _Eugh!_ Trying to physically get away from traitorous and disgusting thoughts that seemed to stem from his newfound memories, Eros toke a split second decision and rushed out of the door.

He stilled as he saw his aunt talking with a tall and thin blonde women who had quite a prominent jaw and a pointy chin painted in a long face atop _twice_ the usual amount of neck.

The women had a cheerful and almost _painfully fake_ smile. She was tightly gripping a young boy who was scruffing his shows on the pavement with his head bowed down.

The women and the boy looked like they could be muggles so before Eros was noticed he rushed to discard his cloak and reveal the v-neck garment beneath.

The hasty movement caught the attention of the muggle boy whose most prominent feature was his shock of black hair. As the boy looked up, his green teary eyes settled on Eros and Eros let a small unconscious smile bloom in his lips.

He suppressed a squeal, the four year old is so cute! _Ah! His eyes are_ _the_  
 _Greenest_! In his defense he found all children cute even though he himself was a child.

Honestly, though Eros wasn't sure if the boy was only four years old. Who knew how muggles -or people in general- aged?

The said boy glared fiercely at him and Eros' smile dimmed as he realized belatedly that the boy's eyes were _actually_ _teary_.

Had he intruded in a bad moment? Did the boy perceive his smile as mocking? He couldn't tell because he didn't what was happening. Thinking about it the woman who was holding the boy had a white knuckled grip that looked quite painful from what he could see. On top of that his aunt's magic was going positively _wild._

His aunt turned around towards him then and to her credit she didn't even look surprised at seeing her wayward nephew in her porch.

She gestured the unknown boy towards Eros and her mouth moved rapidly as she turned towards the women who had widened her pale and dull blue eyes. She briefly looked towards the black haired boy as he dragged himself almost petulantly towards Eros.

Aunt Antarda's eyes met Eros' and Eros slightly startled but nodded to her unsaid request, it seemed as if she was telling him to _take care of the boy._

Something serious must've happened in this boring town.

The boy staggered slightly, his eyes planted firmly towards his feet and Eros opened his mouth, while examining the boy's scrawny build to greet him but what left his mouth was,

"Weasley _!_ _The_ _ **boy**_ _is the Weasley_!" He said his thoughts aloud as his eyes fixed themselves on the _stone glinting on top of an ancestral ring_ in the bony finger of the boy's hand.

A surprised laugh bubbled on the back of his throat but he stamped it down viciously.

At least he's not alone and he wasn't imagining the memories, he was sure of it now _._ It lifted a heavy weight from his heart that he didn't know he had been sporting.

"I am not the **_boy_** nor am I a Weasley ** _!_** My name is Harry Potter and you would do well to remember that!" _Wea-bo-_ _ **Harry**_ said fiercely. His green eyes _glowed_ and his magic lashed out towards Eros _violently_ but it didn't hurt, rather it felt _familiar_. Why did it feel familiar?

He was cautious despite his curiosity because he could tell that something had happened between Harry and the two women on the lawn. But then he promptly swatted the thought of cautiousness away.

Because if he closed his eyes now, then in his mind the magic was accompanied by long vibrant red hair paired with comfortable and worn robes along with a decorum so horrid it was almost _endearing._

The memories felt like that of a close friend and this sense of familiarity didn't deserve his suspicion and caution.

But his eyes weren't closed now. He deliberately kept them opened and he saw what accompanied the unrestrained, _untrained_ thrum of magic was wild black hair, green _green_ eyes blazing with fury and-

 _And_ _balled fists?!_

It more or less looked like the boy was getting ready to _fight_ him.

Eros almost flinched.

 _"_ Im sorry," he said, realizing that he had been quiet for a while and Harry's fist seemed to shake from the tight ball they were rounded in.

He opened his mouth to make up an excuse for calling Harry a boy _(Did Harry want to be called a man? Or did Harry not prefer being called a boy in general? Could Eros ask Harry that? Or would that be offending_? He absently thought these but as he looked into confused and still angry green eyes he couldn't bear to ask any of his thoughts aloud lest he get punched in the face.

So, instead in a moment of absolute recklessness he said the first thing that came to his mind which was completely unrelated to the topic of their current hostile conversation.

He opened his mouth to say, "Would you like to be my friend, Harry?"

* * *

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE:_ **

**So, I know I haven't been updating as fact as I did during the first version whose writing schedule was one chapter per day.**

**But I've started editing the few chapters that were written previously at a pace that I'm proud of because I have a really bad habit of procrastination and I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos of 'D'angelo** **Wallace'** **too.**

**And I have been having a rerun of the umbrella academy after finishing the second season and guess what? *Drum rolls* I'm going to hopefully release the first chapter of ' Caradoc Dearborn ' which is a 'Klaus Hargreeves x Male OC (kind of?)- Of** **hp'** **fic today!**

**I'm really excited for it! If you guys want you can just check out the book? That'll make me really happy!**

**Now before I get ahead of myself-**

_**Thoughts? Like it? Hate it? Haven't formed an opinion yet? Let me know!** _


	4. You're a wizard, Harry.

_-In_ _which Harry is absolutely certain that Uncle Vernon enlisted someone to enrage him to the point of death. Spoiler alert: he's wrong._

_** You're a wizard, Harry. ** _

  
**Harry was confused and beyond frustrated.**

For him the summer had not been going well. His Aunt Petunia was angry with him (more so than any other time) and he had been banished to the cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon so many times that it felt as if the cramped cupboard was his unofficial bedroom. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if his prediction turned into the truth.

From the contemplative and appraising looks shared between his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon that might actually be a possibility in the near future.

But the source of all his misery this _summer_ -(because we were focusing on his sorrowful summer today and not his sorrowful lot in life)- had started with the arrival of the beautiful brown haired women across their street followed in tow by her two left footed son. (not literally of course, he hastily added- even in the privacy of his own mind, dreading to think about his Aunt and Uncle's reaction to his blasphemous thoughts.)

Her aunt was specially taken with the women- ('Andy Zurit' the women had whispered to him when they had first met, with a firm handshake and light blue eyes alight with amusement. Thinking about it, the women often looked as if she was in on an epic joke, the punchline of which _only_ she knew.)- and Mrs. Zurit herself often enlisted Harry's help in her household work in the summer of 1986.

The women was kind and during their joint venture to rid the house of it's monotony she had done almost all the work. (Yes, he couldn't believe it either!

A responsible adult who didn't let him- a six year old child- slave over manual labour, _who would've thought!)_

Oftentimes, Harry was made to sit and enjoy a bowl of ice cream. The women was kind and as he had heard while eavesdropping in a conversation between her and Arabella Figg- a resident of Wisteria Walk- the best thing since honeydukes. He didn't know what it meant but it sounded like something sweet.

As it was, he had almost cried the first time the women had hugged him. _(It was the best hug he had ever been given._ Harry oftentimes swore that it felt exactly like a mother's hug. But the sad thing was, he never had the privilege of getting one from his own mother.

He was an orphan, you see.)

Harry liked to think whenever the fancy struck him that Mrs. Zurit liked him almost as much as her son Nathanial Zurit, her aforementioned son was shorter and a year older than Harry with shiny black hair (as opposed to his mother's brown curls) and the most intriguing set of grey eyes that Harry had ever seen.

Harry was fascinated by the Zurit's (Nathanial had insisted that Harry call them Zurita's before earning a loud smack and a muttered 'Idiot! Have you no subtlety?' from his mother.)

Nathanial also sniggered whenever Aunt Petunia called Mrs. Zurit 'Andy, dear' which was promptly followed by another smack. (This time it was Harry's turn to snigger.)

But enough about that! The source of his misery wasn't really the beautiful woman that Harry had started thinking about in a maternal light.

The source of his headache now was _ironically_ the head splitting aches that he was victim to all summer. It had started after his second day of actually doing some work in the Zurit household by helping Nathanial in setting up a swing and he was coming back to his _house (_ yes, it was house. He refused to believed that number four Privet drive was his _home)_ when he had almost passed out on the sidewalk.

Mrs. Zurit had swooped in then and he was led to believe that she was Harry's own brand of guardian angel.

( ** _Oh, how right he was._** But he wouldn't know that until years later)

Harry had never been grateful to another person _like that_ before. The only other person he was remotely friendly with was the small garter snake that he had discovered in the backyard of the Zurit household. And yes, Harry didn't consider himself that close to Nathanial, either. (Harry had formed a habit of avoiding kids his own age. His habit had hence resulted in their being a rift between Nathanial and him. Although, Nathanial was way more civil and even, dare he say it, a bit understanding towards him, unlike his cousin - Dudley.)

Surprisingly, the snake was quite knowledgeable in the art of putting together a swing set.

Nathanial, in comparison, was not. He had opted to gape open mouthed at Harry taking to the perfectly gentleman snake (who had a penchant of talking in a Victorian and awkward manner) and then tried to pitch in his two cents by _hissing_ at the snake.

Nathanial was a bit...naive, wasn't he?

The only other person Harry had ever seen hiss _upto that point in his rather abysmal life span_ had been uncle vernon when he thought Harry was particularly insolent.

But potential naivety of seven year olds aside, Aunt petunia has hissed threats to him when she was called to the eye doctor the fateful day when Mrs. Zurit had taken him to the hospital. (Mrs. Zurit had actually referred to the doctors as healers which seemed particularly funny to his fuzzy consciousness.)

Apparently, Mrs. Zurit could _somehow_ tell that Harry was _almost blind-_ 'that explains all your stumbling and falling on your face, dear!' she had said with a funny look in her eyes and an even funnier tone.

When asked about how she knew Harry needed to see the eye doctor, she had said something about performing basic diagnostic spells (?) Harry didn't know what that meant but to be honest Harry didn't know a lot of things.

One of which was the fact that his full name was _Harry J. Potter._

The J stood for James, if you wanted to know! Isn't that so cool? He had a middle name!

He had always hated being called _**boy**_ by Uncle Vernon who made it his job to only call Harry that. At least, he hated being called boy when he realized that his actual name _wasn't_ boy.

He was informed of that particular detail by a bewildered teacher who had checked the attendance twice before informing Harry that their was no boy named _boy in this class dear_ \- (which was a confusing sentence in and of itself) _-But there is a Harry Potter_.

After being taken home from the doctor's, Aunt petunia had scolded him fiercely about indebting himself to the _perfectly normal family_ across the streets by making them endure his _freakishness!_

He absolutely didn't get what was freaky about not being able to see properly and needing the aid of glasses to function.

His aunt had been extra angry with him from then and during the following day had busied herself with planning a _normal and enjoyable_ itinerary for the next day so that she could calm herself down and Dudley dursley (his horrid cousin who was extremely demanding and incredibly ungrateful!) could enjoy the summer properly.

Dudley had still not been satisfied with the next day's plans and threw a vicious tantrum that had only been stopped with the promise of chocolate cake during dinner.

Honestly, if aunt petunia had given Harry one hundredth of the attention that Dudley got _only once,_ he would've been able to endure any neglect thrown his way.

As it was, any faint hope of gaining aunt petunia's attention was lost this year and now his daydreams (which earlier consisted of being rescued by his parents who knocked on his door and told him how they had mistakenly given him to the dursley's while ruffling his hair and kissing his cheeks) had turned into wishes of Andy Zurit adopting him.

It had become even more prominent after he saw the women skillfully defending him and gesturing him out of aunt petunia's bruising grip towards the child ( _not boy!)_ standing on her porch.

The child had laughed ( _alright_ _smiled_ ) mockingly at harry's eyes that were teared up due to aunt petunia's brutal grip. He even had the audacity of gaping at Harry's ring that Andy had given him as a gift at the start of the summer. Harry purposefully showed off the ring while thinking almost maliciously, 'See, Andy Zurit was as fond of Harry as he was of her!'

Then the youth had proceeded to call Harry 'boy'. Before Harry was enraged to the point of seeing stars, he was inclined to believe, if only for a moment, that the black haired _child_ was enlisted by uncle Vernon to antagonize Harry till he died from anger.

That was just the malicious thing that uncle Vernon was capable of! He thought with certainty almost nodding outwardly at the notion.

But what had made him choke on disbelief was when a open hand was placed in front of him and he heard faintly-as if it was all happening in his head- "Would you like to be my friend, Harry?"

Harry wasn't _stupid_. He knew what friends were. But, he never had any. Dudley Dursley chased all the friends that he tried to make with his meaty fists and scary threats.

Maybe, Nathanial was his friend. But he couldn't tell exactly. Nathanial and Harry _hadn't explicitly talked about being_ _you-know-what_ _!_

To be frank, little Harry was scared of Nathanial laughing in his face at the notion of being friends with the _freakish and unnatural_ (according to petunia dursley) _boy_ (according to Vernon dursley).

_(In his head, Dudley just laughed himself sick at the thought.)_

That being said, Harry didn't know what possessed him to take the extended hand and shake it-

_Once._

_Twice._

_Thrice._

And utter a shaky ' _u-um_ _, yes, please.'_

Harry had blushed then. Because why did he say ' _please_ _'_! It wasn't like he was _begging anyone to be friends with him!_

No, Harry Potter _did not_ _**beg**_ _._

But, no amount of rebuttal could deny that Harry's heart had stuttered and his breath had hitched when he heard a breathy chuckle and a equally disbelieving voice introduce himself as ' _Eros, Eros Vivor. But you can call me_ _E'os_ _! That's what my family calls me! Well, they only call me that_ _becau-_ _(_ an awkward pause later, Eros resumed) _well, nevermind that._ _'_

The next thing that Eros had said made Harry feel faint.

"Would you like to see some magic, Harry?"

And that was how he was _here_. On the first floor of the Zurit household with a cracking ball of energy encased in Eros' palm which looked blurry at best to his limited vision. None the less it was still _warm and brilliant and magical._ So magical in fact that Harry had pinched himself two times. (Alright, _seven times)_

They were soon interrupted with a too enthusiastic Nathanial who had screamed their names in his excitement. Then he proceeded to bumble his way towards them his eyes fixed on the glowing ball _of pure magic_ encased in Eros' palm that Harry had reached out to touch and now was caressing with awed movements by shaking hands.

"What do you think you are _doing?!_ You can't just go and reveal magic to _muggles!_ The ministry will put you in Azkaban for that!" Nathanial had rather loudly informed then. But in his defence, everything about Nathanial was boisterous and exuberant.

Eros had laughed, then. A small laugh that warmed Harry to his toes. _This was his friend!_ He knew he shouldn't have believed Dudley when he had told Harry that Harry would never have friends. How silly Harry was!

"Azkaban? Who told you that? And besides, Harry's not a muggle! Are you Harry?" The glowing ball dimmed and vanished as Eros turned towards Harry who hastily swallowed a dissapointed and indignant protest at the lack of warmth that the diminished magic caused.

Eros noticed nevertheless and flicked his palm in an easy movement. The ball was noticably smaller now as Eros was not concentrating on that explicitly but the beads of sweat doting his forehead made the fact known that Eros was exerting magic at a rapid rate and soon he would be drained of energy.

To the last question Harry had furiously shook his head even as he reached towards the ball and something in his core warmed as he touched it. He willed the ball to keep glowing because he couldn't let the glow of the ball die.

His childish thoughts acted up then to inform him that maybe if the ball disappeared then he would wake up to see that this was all a dream.

Harry was happy then as something reached out from his hands and gripped the ball of silver _glowing_ magic. A touch of golden and green mixed in Eros's palm, unnoticed by Eros and Nathanial both.

Harry wanted to be like Andy, Eros and Nathanial who he found refuge in; he definitely didn't want to be associated with petunia, Vernon and Dudley dursley who found enjoyment in others torment.

Anything was better than that. So, he found infinite joy as he saw the evidence of him _not being like the dursley's, at all._

"How do you know that?" Nathanial asked with a penetrating look towards Eros, fear colouring his voice at the thought of his relatives going to the wizarding prison.

"I just do," Eros said with certainty.

"The last time you said that we were stuck in the attic of our previous muggle house and Ribky had to come save us!" Nathanial started pacing in panic then.

"In my defense, muggle houses shouldn't have attics!" Eros argued.

Harry thought that Eros was arguing just for the sake of arguing at that moment. He didn't say that though, but he did let out a snort.

"That doesn't make sense." Was the response from Nathanial after a confused and incredulous pause.

"Well, _your face_ doesn't ma-(Eros stopped himself from making a childish and impulsive retort.) alright. You're right. But, trust me on this, yeah?"

Nathanial hesitantly nodded, his eyes roaming between Eros and Harry. His eyes swiveled today's their hands.

He stilled, gasped and cried out, "Are you doing _that, Harry?"_

Harry looked at their unconsciously conjoined hands vibrating with golden, green and silver _magic._

The gold clung to his fingers in an affectionate embrace and the green climbed upwards in his arms.

Eros grinned. Harry's mouth dropped open. Nathanial started bouncing in his spot with excitement.

They didn't notice the door opening until a voice rung out,

"It seems," Andy said, "that you are a wizard, Harry."

**_ AUTHOR'S NOTE: _ **

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter of 'Eros** **Vivor'** **.**

**In the next few chapters we will hopefully follow Eros through his first few years of** **'Crest** **Academy' right until Goblet of fire.**

**I am so excited to write about CA because it is really different from Hogwarts!**

**Fun fact: this story was originally named as 'Crest Academy'.**

**I have another main oc to introduce.** **Upto** **this point the story might seem a little confusing. If you do find it so, don't hesitate to ask questions in the comment section.**

**_Thoughts? Like it? Hate it? Haven't formed an opinion yet? Let me know!_ **


	5. The visit to Hotel Denouement

_-In which Harry adopts a baby snake, Helios tries his hands at pranking, Iris is scared of not having friends and Eros' loves them all regardless._

_**The visit to Hotel Denouement** _

  
**Eros was a little excited**.

It had been a little more one year since he first met Harry and approximately eight months since the birth of his little sister, Artemis Vivor who was extremely fond of sleeping and crawling about.

Harry still sometimes struggled to accept the fact that magic was real and from what he had heard (and saw) sometimes Harry would be up at the crack of dawn (if it was due to nightmares or just general disbelief no one knew) to knock on the door of the Zurita household to ask Andarta to perform magic for him.

Yes, Harry had finally been informed of the fact that Andy Zurit was just a made up name (not really made up, per say) that Andarta Zurita had adopted for herself to live in the muggle world.

Harry had laughed himself sick with disbelief and finally choked out the question as to why they just removed a vowel from the last name and shortened the first name as a disguise.

Aunt Andarta had shrugged then and casually informed them that some wizards were just naturally gifted with idiocy **(a sentiment that Eros will agree wholeheartedly in the coming years** ) and the fact that she hadn't been found out for so many years was enough proof of that.

For so many years Andarta had used that name and nothing had changed in her life as a muggle that she had adopted right from her wardrobe -that purely consisted of long sleeved shirts and jeans, even in the bustling summer heat- to her firm belief that all wizards lacked common sense.

And in slight contrast to her unchanging life, Eros' life was changing, for the better now or at least he liked to think so. He didn't feel as detached to himself as he felt just over a year ago. He had mostly accepted what happened and was _trying_ to move on no matter how hard the random bursts of memory that were _not his_ made his pursuit.

Still, sometimes he would get such sudden evocations that made him question whether he was Eros or Val.

Eros had decided _at the start_ in the privacy of his mind that he wasn't Val because no matter how it felt like _he was,_ the feelings never felt _real_ and _whole._ They were just like fragments of a whole bigger picture that stuck to his mind stubbornly no matter how he wanted to dispel it.

He had to think multiple times that he couldn't be both when his thoughts became too loud and incoherent for him to bear.

Once he had tried to rationalize this theory to himself while he was out shopping with Harry and the Zurita's (it was a particularly dragging day, after all and with that came unwanted thoughts.)

He rationalized that he had all the memories of Eros with a small cluster of Val's meshed in, in an _almost_ perfect discordant harmony, and although he felt like he had more depth of Val's feelings and experiences etched deep in his bones. It wasn't wholely true because they came and went in clusters. No true memory worked like that.

Sometimes though he could swear that those worked as second instincts and he realized with belated horror - _as he saw a muggle woman cradling her child and stepping away from him hastily due to his ill timed ranting (aloud to himself) that it was impossible to have two souls in one body,_ ** _at least he thought it was_** **-** that he was on his way to making other more potent and thousand percent real memories in life, no matter how mortifying they seemed.

While those previous recollections filled him with brief glimpses of joy, equal quantity of sadness and a whole bout of anxiety.

His memories of _now_ filled him with a sense of belonging -( _especially when Harry and Nathanial had fallen into each other while trying to contain their laughter and held on for support after seeing the muggle women give Eros furious glances for his odd ramblings)-_ that he had only felt scarcely in the memories.

The realness of the memories had thankfully faded, to some extent, at least as time went on and it made him often question their overall authenticity and whether they were just the overactive imagination of a seven year old.

Just after he had been graced with them, he had missed the life of the memories with fondness and a sense of deep longing but no matter how fond those made his heart it wouldn't change the truth that the person of the memory, Val, had been wrong and extremely biased.

These realizations filled him with abject horror. He resolved that he wouldn't be like that in his life, he wouldn't ( _couldn't)_ participate in throwing around hate like confetti just because of someone's blood status' or mere house prejudice.

If he hated someone it would be because of something they legitimately did and not because he thought they might have the capability of doing it or might have done it if instigated. His hate wouldn't be based on misguided thinking either. He had seen enough of that in his memories to understand how to be a decent human being.

Besides, even a very dedicated thestral was capable of unleashing great horrors but that didn't mean that they should be exiled just because they were _capable_ of doing it.

Not everything was black and white and he would try to apply that logic to the great cesspool of grey that the wizarding world was.

To do that he couldn't cling shamelessly to the memories and the ideals depicted in it. He couldn't burden Harry and his current family with the angst and dread that those feelings will build up into in adulthood.

Ribky was the most helpful during the year of panic induced nightmares and semi existential crisis that his realizations had made him suffer through and he was also there during the time it took for him to come to a firm decision.

His mind was that of an eight year old only and apparently it couldn't handle the stress of a gaining parts of the memories of a teenager, _who could've thought_ _!_

But this was also a right shame because his consciousness -that he felt had grown over the span of the year- couldn't handle the question why the phrase ' _slept like a baby' was created when Artemis woke up every two hours to make sure everyone in the house knew that she was awake_ anymore than a normal person could which was _only once_ in their life time, if you wanted to know.

It was too complicated, you see, and during the middle of the night being woken up by such thoughts made him want to tear his hair out.

When Eros' sleep was fretful. Ribky, the kind soul that he was, would be up all night holding Eros' hands, carding bony fingers through his head and chasing all nightmares and extremely idiotic thoughts away with his menacing presence.

(Eros was always embarrassed when Ribky asked him what the source for his lack of sleep was.)

Seeing such care, Eros took a decision then that even though Val only cared for about two people in her last life, he would like to make more room in his small heart for others.

Because having other people whom he cared for and who cared for him in return was something that he liked _a lot._ And the though kept him sane when he feared that he was going mad.

And no, that didn't make him weak, no matter what his consciousness liked to think in a moment of weakness.

Caring for people and being strong weren't mutually exclusive.

He was just expanding the group of people that he considered his own, _me and mine_ , he thought. Those who he would be able to bend a little bit of the hard set rules of his own consciousness for.

Being ambitious for disregarding the rules a bit for who he considered his own, his _family_ , could never be perceived as weakness. And Ribky, he decided, was one of his own to shelter from horrors and love till the end.

If aunt Andarta was Harry's guardian angel then Ribky was Eros'.

Seeing Ribky happy made warmth bloom in his chest. And Ribky had been the happiest in the last few months with the newest addition of Artemis in the Vivor family and with her came all her drowsy naps and continuous screaming that from the look of his mother's face made him believe that she was ready to join in any moment, too.

Thus it was needless to say, Ribky was the most enthusiastic -(even more so than mother who was enthusiastic about everything that was proper for a pureblood to enthusiast about)- about the the things that the new addition to their family did and her increasingly profound grasp on basic motor skills which made Ribky chase her crawling form around the house all day.

Honestly though, Ribky was excited for almost all things related to the accomplishments of the children of the Vivor household, no matter how silly and small they seemed in comparison to the vastness of the world.

But, the reason for Eros' excitement that summer was his acceptance owl from Crest Academy that had finally arrived, along with Iris'.

He knew it was selfish of him but he thought that meeting some new people would do him some good. It also wasn't like he was leaving his family. The first years of Crest Academy had the liberty of leaving the school grounds after classes each week if they wished to do so.

Besides, there was nothing that needed his urgent attention. His parents had Artemis to occupy their time. Andarta had Harry now that Nathanial, surprisingly, also received a letter from the academy.

Nathanial had questioned his mother why the letter had arrived three years early earning a prompt swat to the head -even before his question was finished- by his Mother and a furious, "Didn't you read all those books on wizarding schools and customs that I gave you and Harry?" which he answered with 'Honestly, mum, I _don't read!'_ followed by another thwack.

Nathanial had howled with complete outrage at the _audacity_ _of a school for making them study magic since they were eight!_

Nobody had informed him yet that Crest Academy only trained wizards until theirs O.W.L.s so they had to study for their N.E.W.T.s from another school or from home. Eros wanted to be there when that happened to see how many thwacks Nathanial got for his reaction to that comment.

In complete contrast to his hyperactive cousin, Helios, who had finished his first year of school, had started researching on what project he would chose following his graduation of the academy. Which was almost seven years away for Helios and eight years away for the twins.

From what Eros had gleaned through the excited chatter of his older brother, the first years didn't get to do much thrilling things. They learned theories and how to develop a firm grasp on wandless magic. ( _Helios hadn't shut up about it.)_

As the first magical maturation- (because magic only showed signs of manefestation when they were 3 years old for the majority of witches and wizards)-was still very potent and the next maturation was only a year (at the age of nine) away, this time was the most effective to develop the core abilities for wandless magic. Helios had gone on and on about how excited he was for the next school year to start. _He hadn't naturally shut up about it, either._

Eros was slightly sceptical about that, after all it just was not possible for all wizards who were adept at wandless magic to start practicing relentlessly since they were _eight_.

But it somehow, by some twisted wizarding logic, made sense to him.

The wizards and witches weren't really made to work relentlessly during their first year at the school. They just had to slowly work their way through some basic wandless magic. A feat that was quite easy for the untrained mind, the fact that Harry often made glowing orbs of magic appear on his hand _just so he could_ without proper instructions whatsoever was proof of that.

The orbs didn't really come easily for him. The only reason he was able to even make it was because he always admired when his mother made those in order to draw out laughs and giggles from the twins.

Wandless magic at such young age also ought to strengthen the core a little. That was the only explanation that Eros could find to that insanity.

Teaching a bunch of eight year olds wandless magic _together!_ It was a little preposterous to him when he learned they didn't even have houses and house points to reign the children in with.

(He had learned much later that not all wizarding school's had those but for then he was blissfully ignorant.)

The wizarding world never failed to surprise him. He remembered thinking all hogwarts classes were the best thing to happen in the wizarding world after viewing the memories the first time. If he thought really hard sometimes then he could even see faint flashes of quidditch and all classes too.

Sometimes if he tried _very very hard_ he could almost hear a mother's warm laugh and long swinging blond hair as Val was tossed up in the air. Val's mother, he decided, seemed to be made up of warmth and kindness.

But then he opened his eyes to strained warm smiles and soft brown hair of Bernice Vivor tucked in a perfect updo. She was all cool politeness and criticism.

But _maybe_ he was just prejudiced towards Bernice Vivor after viewing the memory of other people's life through rose tinted glasses and _maybe_ he was just prejudiced towards Crest Academy, too.

In his defense, he was trying to change the thinking ingrained in his brain due to the memories. The whole of his consciousness was still too fresh and clean to have firm rooted opinions (and fixated feelings) and with the help of occlumency he could seperate himself from those feelings to make rational decisions that weren't motivated by prejudice.

And one thing which was clear of all prejudice in his mind was that no matter how much Harry informed him of Crest Academy's _brilliance_ _and how wicked it was._

It was still asinine of the Academy to not place more restrictions for the student's safety. Not that Hogwarts was better!

But some part of him still respected both the schools no matter how much he talked bad about them sometimes. It was no small feat to stop young and malleable wizards from doing dumb things.

Harry was the living proof of that theory sometimes because he had _adopted_ a baby _snake_ without informing anyone!

Eros almost had a heart attack when he saw the little thing wrapped around Harry's neck like a _fancy_ _necklace._

Although he had a fear of snakes, his concern for Harry was more deep-rooted and when he wrapped all of his magic around the animal with great concentration in order to remove the snake Harry had wrapped his magic around it too in a _pseudo handshake_ and _laughed_ as if they were playing a game.

Needless to say, Eros was _pissed_.

After a screaming match to not _ever_ pull dumb things like that on Eros again because he had a fragile heart and he could've died from the fear alone.

("Honestly, Harry. Have you no forethought! Adopting a snake without knowing if it's poisonous or not!"

"But I couldn't just ask the poor thing now, could I? That's extremely rude, Eros!")

Harry had been most upset when the snake (that Harry had informed Eros was a she) had slithered away to find it's mommy unable to bear them disturbing her sleep any longer.

Eros had decided then that Harry Potter this _absolutely_ _imbecilic-moronic-idiotic-dumbchild_ who didn't have any forethought and was set to make Eros bald by his twenties was one of his own, too.

He couldn't help the wizarding world in the regard of ridding itself of all their stupidity, not even if he tried. Which he absolutely won't because even thinking about it was headache inducing.

Besides, he was a young boy who honestly didn't give two knuts about the world's problems when he had enough of his own.

But what he could do was help the small world that he built with the people he loved by bettering himself. And he would do that because _that_ was the most smart thing that he was capable of doing.

So, no matter how fond the memories made his heart grow, he was not Val. Not now, not _ever._ He was Eros and he _had to accept that._

He didn't need to do that because he had a sense of violation towards anyone. Not to anyone in his life nor to Harry (who didn't seem to have inherited any memory of Val's lover at all)

No, he _had to_ do this for himself and because it was the _smart_ thing to do if he wanted to protect those he loved.

Dwelling on the memories will gain him nothing but lost time. He couldn't afford losing time when he should be _living_ life and making memories of his own. So many memories that he didn't have to clutch onto those that he couldn't comprehend clearly.

Enough time had passed and he could move on now. In fact, some wistful part of him knew that he had moved on the first time he decided to let Ribky in.

And tomorrow was the next step because then he would be going to Crest Academy and after he graduated from the academy and earned his O.W.L.s he could return to Hogwarts for his N.E.W.T.s too, _maybe_. After all Crest Academy only taught till fifth year with a mandatory project that they had to submit to their respective year's teacher which Helios had inadvertently informed Eros and Iris _all about_ during his routine of midnight ramblings.

It was all so exciting, going there when he had no idea of what came next in his life. It felt as if it was a great adventure that was just made for him to conquer.

But it wasn't like he didn't know anything about the academy because as it had been stressed before _Helios wouldn't shut up about it._

Helios would be sorted the next year by the headmaster himself which actually wasn't as special as it sounded.

Eros had been the most confused when he had heard about how his brother would be sorted his second year and he had been aghast when he had learned where they would be sorted.

That was the source of all his wistful ramblings until now. Truly, Helios had a gift of encouraging other people's ramblings.

Eros' first thought was weren't first years supposed to be sorted right as they entered Hogwarts for the first time? How else did they decide who slept where and how to give house points?

That was when he had learned the fact that evidently, Crest Academy didn't have houses to sort the students into.

All children were sorted into groups of three depending on their nature, talents and who challenged them to improve for the best. These were all decided by something (he guessed that it was a magical object) that could take all these factors into account as opposed to the Hogwart's sorting hat which took what qualities they valued most into account.

Eros grudgingly admitted that it was clever to evaluate a student after one year of schooling had passed.

The sorting was followed by the next big _practical_ exam during the end of their fourth year at the age of eleven just after some months that they were _legally_ allowed a wand.

As it was, a lot of students who failed on the first evaluation test which was taken before the practical were given a transfer certificate after the third year examination so failing the practical wasn't a big deal and didn't have that many consequences (when he had told Helios of his conclusion, his brother looked ready to faint with horror at the thought of failing).

After receiving the certificate, if they failed that is, they would still be able to attend other schools instead of wasting any extra time. Helios had told them this with such excruciating detail that Eros wouldn't be surprised if Helios informed them that he was writing a thesis on that topic.

But then Helios started talking about another _actual_ surprising topic, he had whispered to them in a voice laced with delight that the academy had their own supply of wands that the students were allowed to use under adult supervision from the middle of the second school year.

Eros' eyebrows furrowed at that comment and then he had laughed. It was impossible for the ministry to not know of the use of wands when some of the employees graduated from the school themselves.

So, either the academy had enough reach to keep the ministry mum or they had really loyal students. He was betting on them having influence but the latter didn't sound so improbable.

Due to the school providing them with wands just before the second year's completion and them only having permission to buy a wand when they reached eleven by the ministry, there wasn't many things to buy at Vertic Alley.

His mother had made all those fanfare last year for nothing. They just had to buy school robes whose only modification during the school year would be the coat of arms of their own choice after they reached eleven years of age and the prescribed books. Thus, Eros and Iris had both decided to postpone the trip to the last day to earn maximum enjoyment.

That's why they were here in front of Hotel Denouement shielded by bushes at the apparition point so heavily shrouded in muggle repelling charms that it was physically repelling for him, too.

The nine storeyed structure was so imposingly magical that the fact _that muggles hadn't caught on_ was slightly disbelieving.

The hotel stood on the edge of a gleaming lake that had some impressive charms laid on the surface and in the water too. He could almost feel the magic thrumming through each ripple of the lakes water and the magic was inlayed on each brick of the hotel. All of them had the same intoxicatingly powerful magical signature.

Another curious thing was that the huge structure seemed to be bowed over the lake like it would fall into the lake at any moment. If that didn't seem suspicious to the muggles then he wanted to know what did.

All of the letters and numbers that decorated the outside of the building were written backwards but if he concentrated enough he could see the words clearly as they shuffled to fit each other. But just then, Iris nudged him sharply with her elbow to show him that when leaning over the lake, the water shows the reflection of the structure with the labels correctly spelled, he sheepishly thought that not everything was as complicated and magical as they seemed.

The building was covered with lilies and moss to imitate the surface of the lake.

As they entered the hotel a domed ceiling above the main lobby could be seen from which hung an enormous clock. The clock let out a loud 'wrong, wrong, wrong' sound just as they started towards the elevator with Eros' mother leading the way and nodding towards the manager, Eros thought that Ribky and Artemis would quite enjoy this ominous sight.

When he came the next time he'll take them with him, he resolved as the elevator door opened.

Bernice Vivor turned towards the back of the elevator and tapped her wand once on the inconspicuous looking indents on the elevator's back just as the doors closed.

The lift stilled after approximately four seconds just as it was ascending upwards. Then it ricocheted sharply towards the ground instead of shooting upwards as he expected.

As the twins threw themselves towards the opposite corners of the lift to pivot themselves, Bernice Vivor stood with all the elegance of a fully grown unicorn not even a strand of hair out of place while the twins had the composure of startled flobberworms.

Bernice sternly told them to, "Straighten yourself up, dears. It won't do to present yourselves like this in front of Mr. Denouement, would it?"

Eros gaped. Iris straightened her hair.

It wasn't a question and their Mother wasn't asking for an answer as she patted the stray hairs from Iris' forehead and helped Eros stand up from where he was flung aside by the movements of the elevator.

She then proceeded to tap her wand towards the middle of the glowing ring that had appeared on the wall and let amber rings of magic shoot from her wand and spread out into spider web like strands.

The door opened revealing a tall, dark haired and hazel eyed man who wore a smart pinstripe suit. He looked up at them and stood from his leaning position on his desk.

"This is Dewey Denouement, the oldest among the Denouement triplets. His brothers Ernest and Frank are the other managers of the hotel." Their mother introduced while Dewey Denouement nodded politely in greeting not saying anything and sharply turned towards the door to the left of the elevator.

There were hundreds of small boxes with keys inserted on them covering the walls. Dewey promptly sweeped his hands in a wide arc and several of the boxes opened in a satisfying synchronized movement.

The left side wall opened enough,as the keys twisted in a full circle, so wide that it seemed that it would be able to fit two giant trolls with no problems and the sight that met Eros' eyes was-

Beyond confusing because before him stood a wall with the following words etched on them,

_**VFD** _

_The Alley of_ _**V**_ _ertic_ _ **f**_ _or_ _ **d**_ _aily_ _provision of the upright citizens of the magical world._

_Please put you wand here ___ for scanning._

_Or, if you are a squib sign your name here ___ with the provided quill._

_Or, if you are any other magical then follow the instructions given on the parchment of wall number 101._

With practiced ease, Bernice put the tip of her wand on the wall and a glowing orb came from her wand to split the wall right at the middle.

The sight that met Eros then made him gasp in wonder. There were several people drifting about on the mouth of the wall and some of them seemed startled to see the wall opening up, making him believe that this wasn't the only entrance of the Vertic Alley.

The Alley was shrouded in blue hues all over with slight golden peeking from time to time. Wizards and Witches along with all kinds of magical creatures walked about, the varying colours of their outfits created a brilliant vision in contrast to the annoyance that the shrill cacophony of noises induced.

Places like _Quidditch for the upstanding and adrift_ and _Gringotts_ were beautiful sights to behold while other places like _Charlie Bucket's Chocolates_ seemed ethereal in the dim lighting. He was in a daze the whole day as he drifted from shop to shop.

Robe fitting in _Wizzy Wool's Wizarding Wardrobes_ was the most tedious but somehow he even enjoyed that with Iris' constant fretting about what would happen if the robes they wore for the welcoming ceremony didn't fit with that of the others.

She was chattering his ear off about how embarrassing it would be and how no one would want to be their friends if that happened. Eros had assured her that it wouldn't happen and even if it did they would still have each other.

With that statement came a realization that no matter how much he seemed to distance himself from her, she was still his sibling. Even if they weren't like most twins, even if they weren't joined at the hip, she was still one of his own- an intricate part of his family.

So, he ruffled her hair and as she yelped and swatted at his hands he said, "I'll help you make some friends on the welcoming ceremony, yeah? Even if we have horrible robes we'll still have each other, don't worry."

When the day ended, with it went the hours of consoling that he had to do to stop Harry and Ribky from crying till their eyes hurt, because on the day of their departure Harry started tearing up as soon as he saw Eros on the front porch of the Zurita household and seeing Harry cry, Ribky reflexively had started bawling, too.

He was thankful in that moment for the fact that Bernice Vivor was on babysitting duty and not Ribky, because then Artemis wouldve started too and it would've turned into a sobbing fest.

Iris took to calming Ribky while Eros hugged Harry goodbye with promises to write letters each day on his lips. Harry just continued crying until he calmed down enough to gift Eros with a stone that he had polished himself to be used as paperweight _to remember me by_ , Harry had said.

Honestly they were acting as if Eros won't ever come back. When in fact he would be home next weekend. Even then Eros felt his eyes prick with tears at being showed such worry.

Eros had still kept his mouth shut and fought the impulse of telling them that he'll be back next week as to not earn a blow to his head like Nathanial who had informed his silently crying mother just that moments before.

Eros took Iris' wrist and held his letter before him just as the clock hit 9 o'clock in the morning and said loudly,

"The Illustris Crest Aca-AHHH!" He was swept of his feet with Helios' booming laughter lost to the wind and his screams sounding out as he became wrong footed.

Out of all the things that Helios had said that summer, he forgot to inform them that the letter was a Portkey which was activated by touch alone.

Helios had told them instead that there was a voice activated enchantment attached to the letter which he discovered just now was a lie! _They had been pranked_.

As he fell to the ground- fortunately covered with soft grass- with a thud, Iris' sharp elbow hit his ribs as she fell, too.

He realized that his over enthusiastic and extremely studious brother definitely had some _slytherin cunning_ in him too.

_Ugh_ , and he also realized, that none of the things that _Helios hadn't shut up about_ could be trusted now!

**_ AUTHOR'S NOTE: _ **

**So, I wanted to update this last day but I wasn't satisfied with my writing. I am not satisfied with this chapter still. But knowing me if I procrastinated more then I would've just not found the confidence to update at all.**

**(Updates may be scarce for the next few weeks because annual online exams are about to start. I'll still try to squeeze in some updates.)**

**As you can see, online classes have wrung me dry. I have almost no time on my hands in between the classes and exams that we have each week!**

**So, because I missed an update last day this is a treat! This chapter is almost 5.2k which is twice of my normal length of updates!**

**I wanted to add Kit Snicket but then I thought about this great introduction idea for her during the** **dh** **perhaps? I haven't decided yet.**

**I'm so sleep deprived I might pass out now. But I have two more classes today 😭 so I have to endure. But enough about that.**

**_Thoughts? Like it? Hate it? Haven't formed an opinion yet? Let me know!_ **


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